Campaigners defending the right to wild camp on Dartmoor are urging people across the nation to wild camp next week in protest to the lack of rights of access to nature.

A High Court ruling on January 13 banned wild camping on Dartmoor without the landowner’s permission.

Prior to this, Dartmoor was the only area of England and Wales where under a local law there had been an assumed right to wild camp without the landowner’s permission.

Organisers of last month’s historic land-rights protest on Dartmoor are urging supporters to dedicate one night of the upcoming half-term holidays to winter wild-camping in English and Welsh national parks to protest centuries of erosion of nature-access in the UK, and to fight for a change in the law.

The Stars are for Everyone and Right to Roam, which planned last month’s Dartmoor landmark uprising, are calling on members of the public to back their new Starry Starry Fortnight campaign: wild-camping responsibly and leaving no trace.

The campaign asks the public between February now and Sunday February 26 to take to their tents in any of England and Wales’ 13 national parks, sharing photos, stories and experiences on social media using the hashtag #TheStarsAreForEveryone.

If camping isn’t possible or desirable, to instead wake early to witness the early-bird dawn chorus; go for a night walk; or to take to the hills or the greenbelt to watch the first stars emerge.

They are also urging people to write to their local MPs to ask for a new right to roam act using the template found at www.righttoroam.org.uk/mpletter

The campaign is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Land Reform Act, the legislation that bestowed the right to roam across all of Scotland’s common land.

It will demonstrate public determination for the equivalent right to not just be defended on Dartmoor but extended to all 12 other parks in England and Wales where it is currently treated as trespass.

Annie Dare, of The Stars are for Everyone, said. “The High Court ruling of 13 January that overturned the right to wild-camp on Dartmoor was the first time that millions of us woke up to the cataclysmic decimation of our rights to access nature in this country.

“Outrage at this iniquity of access prompted 3,500 people to descend on Dartmoor last month, where they participated in the largest land-justice protest this country has seen in close to a century.

“While that uprising was vital in emboldening the Dartmoor national park to appeal the despicable High Court ruling, it is completely unacceptable for Dartmoor to be the only place where wild-camping is allowed in England and Wales.

“We urge the public to join this peaceful nationwide festival of dissent and direct action under the stars, to build on this moment and show politicians across the political spectrum and up and down the country that they must enshrine this right in primary legislation that applies to all our parks.”

Right to Roam campaigner Lewis Winks said: “The loss of our last remaining right to wild camp on Dartmoor has catalysed a new right to roam movement in England, and placed within reach the legislative change which we need to safeguard and extend access to nature for future generations.

“While we’ve seen our rights on Dartmoor stripped from us by wealthy landowners, we are using this moment in history to extend and cement our access so that many more people are able to enjoy the transcendental beauty of nights spent under starry skies in our most treasured landscapes - to have experiences which transform and shape lives.”

Alexander Darwall and his wife Diana, who own the Blachford Estate on Dartmoor and took the case to the High Court, said it was never their intention to ban camping on Dartmoor, but to “clarify the law”.

They said in a statement on the Blachford Estate website: “We have always wanted to work with the Dartmoor National Park Authority on this issue and the recent court ruling now affords us that opportunity. We are hoping to come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement in the near future.”

The campaign also asks people to  contribute to Dartmoor Preservation Association’s fundraiser to support the National Park Authority’s attempt to appeal the High Court ruling at www.dartmoorpreservation.co.uk. Campaigners are also encouraging people to form affiliate local pressure groups up and down the country to campaign for access to local national parks and green belts near them.